Proposal to establish Herzliya as the temporary capital, by local Herzliya leaders, suggesting the city serve as center for the government until the conflict in Jerusalem reached an end Israel State Archives

As early as November 1947, before the Partition Plan had even been adopted by the UN General Assembly, a body known as the "Situation Committee" was created as a result of the collective efforts of the Jewish Agency and the National Council, the representative body of the Jews of Palestine. The role of this committee was to prepare the groundwork for the governmental and administrative institutions that would need to be established with the creation of the Jewish state. The Situation Committee took a wide range of steps that eventually enabled these institutions to begin functioning. The committee was also asked to address the issue of where to locate the state's central governmental institutions. Among the multitude of memoranda and proposals that flooded the committee's desks was this particular paper, delivered by the local council president of the settlement of Herzliya, containing a detailed and thoughtful proposal to establish Herzliya as the capital of the Jewish state that was about to be born.
This was meant to be a temporary measure, until the battle for Jerusalem would be resolved, whereupon Jerusalem would assume its rightful place as the nation's capital. The main arguments in favor of the Herzliya proposal centered on the settlement's strategic and economic assets. David Ben-Gurion issued a laconic response to the memorandum, stating that there was as yet no institution in existence with the authority to decide the issue; at the appropriate time, said Ben-Gurion, the Herzliya proposal would be taken into account.